Papua New Guinea eagerly awaited the US president’s visit and attended the signing ceremony of a major security agreement, but Mr. Biden missed that historic moment.
Since last week, the people of Papua New Guinea have been ready to throw a party to receive a special guest: the President of the United States, Joe Biden. The Pacific island nation’s government even declared May 22, the scheduled date for Biden’s visit, as a holiday. But the guest they expected did not appear.
According to the original timeline, Biden will become the first US president to visit Papua New Guinea when he arrives in the island nation after the G7 summit in Japan. But in the end, he had to cut short his trip to Asia, cancel plans to visit Papua New Guinea and Australia to quickly return to the United States to resolve the debt ceiling crisis.
Instead, Papua New Guinea (PNG) welcomed US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken. Blinken then and Win Bakri Daki, Papua New Guinea’s Minister of Defense, signed a major defense agreement, allowing US military forces access to several airports and seaports on the island nation.
US Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and Papua New Guinea Defense Minister Win Bakri Daki signed a defense agreement on May 22. Photo: AFP
“We look forward to taking our partnership to the next level,” Foreign Minister Blinken said at the signing ceremony. However, this is not the historic moment Papua New Guinea was hoping for after six months of preparing for Biden’s visit.
“For some Pacific Island leaders, this is a huge disappointment as they are trying to get their schedule straight to go to Papua New Guinea to meet President Biden,” said Mark Brown, the islands’ prime minister. Cook and leader of the Pacific Islands Forum, said.
Observers say this is not the right time for the US to let down leaders in this strategically located and resource-rich region. Washington and Beijing are fiercely competing for influence in the Pacific. The US has not paid much attention to the region for many years and is trying to keep up with the momentum of China’s expanding influence.
These 15 countries manage about 20% of the world’s oceans. Here are important sea routes used by the Allies to transport supplies to Australia and New Zealand during World War II.
Western interests in the Pacific waned after World War II, while Chinese investment in the region increased. China has strengthened ties with several island nations over the past decade, sending aid and investing in schools and roads. When Secretary of State Blinken arrived in Port Moresby, he was on a six-lane Chinese-built highway.
Last year, the Solomon Islands signed a security pact with China, raising fears that Beijing could build the region’s first military base and expand the reach of its armed forces in Thailand.
“Many of our countries in the Pacific have established good diplomatic relations with China,” said Prime Minister Brown. “China has bridged the development gap by helping Pacific countries achieve their development priorities.”
He added that the West is now showing increasing interest in the development needs of the Pacific region. “We welcome Secretary Blinken’s announcement that he wants the United States to be seen as the preferred development partner for Pacific nations,” he said.
But analysts say Washington may have to do more to convince Pacific island countries that they are serious about offering a partnership.
Last year, Fiji’s acting prime minister told the US secretary of state that island nations felt they were not valued by Western leaders when they “referred to us instead of talking to us” in meetings.
Chinese President Xi Jinping is not like that. He visited Papua New Guinea in 2018 and went to Fiji four years earlier.
Chinese President Xi Jinping (left) shakes hands with then-Prime Minister of Papua New Guinea Peter O’Neill during a meeting in Port Moresby in 2018. Photo: Reuters
Washington has become wary of China’s growing presence in the region and earlier this year reopened its embassy in the Solomon Islands, which had been closed for 30 years. Australia has also sent defense and foreign ministers to various island nations to strengthen ties with the region.
While Pacific Island leaders have welcomed the change, they have their own priorities.
“We don’t want the region to become a place of confrontation between partners, but rather seek collaborative plans to better support their development and climate agendas,” Brown said.
The Cook Islands Prime Minister added that it is important that “China and the US have to work with us, not with each other”.
Rather than being caught in the middle of a rivalry between the two superpowers, island states here could benefit from growing interest from the United States and China.
“Pacific governments are playing to their advantage. Making friends with all and without enemies is the foreign policy motto of most Pacific nations,” said Gordon Peake, senior adviser to the Pacific island nation’s foreign affairs at the American Institute of Peace. .
President Biden speaks at a press conference on the sidelines of the G7 summit in Hiroshima, Japan, May 21. Photo: AFP
The key for Pacific island nations will be getting the US and China to get their priorities straight, observers say.
Cook Islands Prime Minister Mark Brown attended the G7 Open Summit in Japan over the weekend as a guest. At the G7 summit, the leaders of the world’s wealthiest nations issued a joint statement with fierce language targeting what they described as Beijing’s growing military and economic threat. But there is little information that the G7 will focus on solving the global climate crisis.
Pacific islands are particularly vulnerable to sea level rise and hurricanes, while the ocean is linked to their lives, livelihoods and cultures.
“I think climate change is not something that drops from the sky, it’s something we have to live with year after year, season after season. Its effect on our country can be potentially fatal. droughts, our message is to hear the voice of the Pacific ’ said Prime Minister Brown.
As competition between the superpowers heats up, these once-forgotten Pacific nations are increasingly being heard in the international arena and seem determined to make the most of it, even if they don’t get a historic moment with President Biden in Papua New Guinea. , according to BBC commentator Laura Bicker.
Thanh Tam (according to the BBC)
